THE MODERN MINT BLOG

Feb23

Green Elements at The Quay Theatre, March 12th

In less than two weeks my brand new talk Green Elements: Cultivating Your Garden In Extraordinary Times will be presented, for the first time ever, at the Quay Theatre in Sudbury.

The date is March 12th and the time will be 3pm.

See what the blurb says about the talk.


For those of you this kind of thing matters to, there is no 6 Nations rugby on that afternoon. So don’t panic, you won’t be missing out if you come to the Quay Theatre….


Greener Sudbury, a community group in the town who are committed to making the area a better place for wildlife, were the driving force behind me putting this talk together.

They wanted to find a fun way to give people the skills they need to make a garden that really zings – a garden filled with flowers, pollinators and the best tasting, freshest food you can imagine.

Oh, and could I teach people how to do that when their time is limited as well?

Of course I can. I have made a habit of it, through the garden consultations, tidies, topiaries and other work I have completed with Modern Mint over the last few years.

What Will Green Elements Be About Then?

Green Elements at the Quay Theatre on March 12th will consist of me, with a table full of interesting tools, food, flowers and other unusual garden paraphernalia.

I have delved into my experience of making gardens across the country to come up with the most important ‘green elements’ every garden should have. I will explain what they are, why your garden needs them and how you can look after them in the simplest possible way.

Some of these ‘Green Elements’ include:

  • Growing your own nutrient rich vegetables without doing any digging
  • Using plants and beautiful, natural fragrances for health benefits and to welcome people to your home
  • Creating amazing compost that won’t stink to the heavens nor attract rats
  • Dealing with a shady spot
  • Making the lawn into something you can be proud of
  • Getting flowers for pollinators all through the year
  • Tips for helping the birds to survive winter
  • How to prune, when to prune and what to do if you cut off the wrong branch…. or an arm
  • Which native plants really help bees
  • Making a border that looks fantastic and doesn’t leave you overwhelmed by the weeding
  • Techniques from gardeners around the world that will help you improve your soil, grow stronger plants and sequester carbon from the atmosphere
  • Choose the flowers to grow in your garden that will last a long time when cut for the house or a vase
  • Deal with slugs

If that isn’t enough (and it surely should be!) we will also let you know the horticultural secret that allows a farm in the UK to make the world’s best mozzarella, and if you are really lucky you may even get to taste some.*

(*You won’t be that lucky. It is too tasty and I won’t be sharing.)


Where and How Do I Get A Ticket?

Hope to see you, or a friend you have told about this talk, at the Quay Theatre on March 12th.

Green Elements: Cultivating Your Garden In Extraordinary Times is going to be a lot of fun, so read more at the Quay Theatre ticket buying site.

Feb10

Why I Wrote The Book Modern Topiary

I have written this book, Modern Topiary, because I wanted a collation of useful information that would give people access to everything they need to know in order to start making topiary. Topiary is an amazing (and niche) line of work to follow – amazing because it offers up opportunities to travel all over the world, making gardens, meeting people… but also, the work is intensely physical, hands-on, yet requires creative thinking in order to solve the puzzle of how to make the shapes you want. This mixture of the craft and the art is what I love the most …

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Jan30

Buxus the Norfolk Terrier In Modern Topiary Book

This is Buxus, our Norfolk Terrier, who I acknowledge in the acknowledgments of the book of Modern Topiary. The book of Modern Topiary can be read, for free, here. There you go. Buxus the dog on ‘doorstep duty’ at a friend’s house in Edinburgh. For those asking what he looked like!

Jan30

What People Think Of Modern Topiary, The Book

Yesterday I put out the book – Modern Topiary – that I have spent the last six years writing. Download for free a pdf of Modern Topiary here. And what seems amazing to me, is that not only have people actually been reading it, but then responding to it. So below are a number of comments I have been sent from those who read it last night, and this morning…. “Brilliant read, exactly the right amount of info to take in and digest.” Rachel, a gardener “I love your book, the advice is so straightforward and your writing is so …

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